The Chesapeake Foodshed Assessment, a project commissioned by the Center to better understand the complexities and opportunities provided by the changing nature of the region’s food system, was completed in summer 2019.
Phil Gottwals with Agricultural and Community Development Services, LLC was commissioned to provide an in-depth study of the current state of the sectors that comprise our regional food system including producers, processors, distributors, and consumers. Phil was joined by former Center board member Dr. Christine Bergmark and Joe Tassone, principal investigator for the Center’s earlier research projects on local foods.
Data as well as information gathered through interviews and community listening sessions provided the team with a clear understanding of factors that are currently working well and areas that need improvement and provide opportunities.
The study examines a subdivision of the Chesapeake Watershed that serves as a proxy for assessing the demographic, human capital, agricultural and supply chain dynamics for the larger geography.
The study area consists of 82 counties and independent cities in Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Delaware. It represents about 40 percent of the 206 counties and independent cities, 78 percent of the population, and 63 percent of the 11.2 million acres of agricultural land in the entire foodshed. In addition to covering a diversity of soil types, hardiness zones and production types, it includes key production and infrastructure clusters for livestock, poultry, dairy, fruits, vegetables, and other specialty crops.
The report’s findings revealed that stakeholders within each of the Chesapeake Bay food system sectors shared common values that could be built upon to improve the system to better serve communities and address specific socio-economic objectives.
Preliminary areas of opportunity include suggestions to:
- Strengthen community and culture around food;
- Promote networked solutions to regional food system develop;
- Create a Chesapeake Regional Food System “brand” and unified certification system;
- Tailor agricultural education, workforce development, and farm transition programs to the future;
- Support an entrepreneurial and innovation culture in the supply chain; and
- Identify or create an entity to serve as a regional coordinator of local food system development projects.